


He Followed Me Home, Can I Keep Him?

by ScreechTheMighty



Category: Mad Max Series (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Fluff, Gen, Nux is literally a puppy, This is DUMB
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-03
Updated: 2015-06-03
Packaged: 2018-04-02 15:03:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 735
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4064389
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ScreechTheMighty/pseuds/ScreechTheMighty
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nux is literally a puppy. Max isn't happy about the new addition to the family.</p>
            </blockquote>





	He Followed Me Home, Can I Keep Him?

**Author's Note:**

> A friend of mine was using puppy metaphors in relation to Nux and so I wrote this. I have only a few regrets. [Originally posted on my tumblr.](http://screechthemighty.tumblr.com/post/119978195988/so-last-night-i-was-talking-with)

He shouldn’t have let her keep the damn dog.

Usually, he didn’t have a problem with dogs. He liked dogs. Except this dog. This dog was a mangy, scrawny thing. Even after the vet visits to get him de-wormed, he was still sickly. Barely a dog. Annoying and small. That’s what he was.

But Capable loved him. So Max didn’t really get a say in it.

The biggest problem with the dog (Nux, Capable had named him) wasn’t that he was always underfoot. Or that he barked at everything that moved (including his own reflection). Or that he didn’t seem to get Max didn’t want him around. It was that he brought you things. Shoes. Clothes. Dead things. If Max wasn’t stepping on Nux, he was stepping on something Nux had dragged in. “Fucking  _dog,_ ” he growled one day as he kicked away a shoe Nux left by the couch.

“He likes you.” Furiosa thought it was funny. Of course she did. “Is that shoe yours?”

He frowned and picked up the shoe. He didn’t recognize it. There was no way it belonged to Furiosa or the girls—too big. And it wasn’t his. “…Goddamn it,” he said.

Furiosa started laughing. They made Capable return the shoe.

That was the first of many  stolen objects Nux brought home. Shoes. Laundry. The toys of the dog down the street. Capable couldn’t return everything, so Max had to step in. The neighbors already thought he was odd. This probably wasn’t helping.

“…good morning?”

He didn’t know the name of the neighbors three doors down. Their house was yellow and their car had needed new brakes for three weeks now. Furiosa probably knew their name. He hadn’t thought to ask her. “Yeah,” Max said. He fidgeted and held out the sweater. “Dog took this. ‘s got your girl’s name on it.”

The neighbor looked at the sweater. Max didn’t plan on figuring out what that look meant. He thrust the sweater into the neighbor’s hands. “Sorry.” He walked away. Went home. Worked on filling in the holes Nux had dug to get out of the fence. Nux sat on the porch and watched. “The _hell_  do you want?” he asked the dog.

Nux barked in response.

“You need to tie him up when you let him out,” he said to Capable that night. “He’s still stealing from the neighbors.”

“I thought you didn’t like the neighbors,” Capable said. She was holding Nux in her lap. If Nux wasn’t pestering someone, he was with Capable. That was the way it was.

“I don’t. That’s why I don’t want to keep giving them back their shit.”

“It’s not  _that_  bad.” Max fixed her with a cool stare. “…okay, maybe it is…”

“It is.”

“…I’ll put him on the chain.”

“Mmm-hmm.”

It took Nux less than a week to figure out how to get off the leash. They came home one day to find the yard empty and a new hole under the fence. “Okay,” Furiosa said calmly. “He’s smarter than we thought.”

Capable, at least, had the decency to look guilty. “…I’ll fill in the hole,” she said.

“Nah, you go find him. I’ll fill it.” Max had resigned himself to filling holes at this point.

The girls went looking for Nux. Furiosa helped him fill the hole. “Stubborn little bastard, isn’t he?” she noted. Max grunted in response. “If he takes something else, I’ll take it back this time.”

“Neighbors don’t like you any better,” he pointed out.

“But unlike you, I don’t care. Maybe we can dig out under the fence and fill it in with concrete or something.”

“Maybe.” As he stamped the earth, he noticed the sound of scratching at the gate. “Well. I’ll be damned.”

Nux was sitting outside the gate with a ball in his mouth. “Nux, you fucking dumbass,” said Furiosa. “Whose ball is this?”

“Dog down the street, probably.” That dog was considerably bigger than Nux. Meaner, too. “Shame it hasn’t eaten him yet.”

Furiosa just shook her head. She knew he didn’t mean it. Because Capable would be heartbroken if something happened to Nux. He wasn’t sure he could live with that. It was the only reason he hadn’t gotten rid of the damn thing.

Nux dropped the ball at Max’s feet and stared up at him. He could swear the look on the little rat’s face was  _prideful_.

_Damn dog._

**Author's Note:**

> I’ve seen some AUs where the Road Trip Crew are all survivors of a cult and maybe this takes place in a universe like that??? But you shouldn’t think about it too hard, Nux is literally some kind of terrier puppy in this, it’s ridiculous.


End file.
